thetemple8's Latest Posts

Having fallen in love with Gop Hill and moved there with my young family, I have been trying my best to research the site and its caves.

Unfortunately Boyd Dawkins excavated a shaft from the top to ground level which may have made irreporable damage to any of its interior structures. If it is believed to be a cairn - should there not be an entrance on the south west of the hill? Most similar cairns in ireland, scotland and cumbria have. As there is zero budget for archaeology in Wales it seems that this hill will remain a mystery for years to come.

The surrounding area indeed has a dense concentration of barrows and tumili, i don't know of any other few square miles in the country that has so many, it is a small piece of our country that we know little or nothing about despite continuous human habitation there since prehistory.

I believe that Boyd Dawkins did also investigate parts of the caves, which found human as well as wooly mammoth, wooly rhino, hyena bones. The caves really are an enigma as they seem to have small shafts running all over. More investigation is required to map the caves. I will make an attempt over the next year or so. It will take time - and my hope is that the caves may run under the cairn itself - and perhaps into it.